Field of the Disclosure
Examples of the present disclosure relate to a frac sleeve with expandable ball seat. More specifically, embodiments include an expandable ball seat within a frac sleeve, wherein the expandable ball seat is configured to allow a single frac-ball to treat a plurality of zones associated with a plurality of frac sleeves.
Background
Hydraulic fracturing is the process of creating cracks or fractures in underground geological formations. After creating the cracks or fractures, a mixture of water, sand, and other chemical additives, are pumped into the cracks or fractures to protect the integrity of the geological formation and enhance production of the natural resources. The cracks or fractures are maintained opened by the mixture, allowing the natural resources within the geological formation to flow into a wellbore, where it is collected at the surface.
Additionally, during the fracturing process, tools may be pumping through frac sleeves to enhance the production of the natural resources. One of the tools pumped through the frac sleeves are frac-balls. The frac-balls are configured to block off or close portions of a well to allow pressure to build up, causing the cracks or fractures in the geological formations and in other cases to shut these openings and isolate existing fractures to prevent production of undesired fluid.
Current or existing completion strings that utilize frac sleeves in wellbores are comprised of a plurality of frac sleeves, each having have tapered sidewalls. In order to activate each frac sleeve, properly sized frac-balls are pumped along with the mixture inside of the wellbore. Subsequent pumped frac-balls may have a larger diameter. The larger is smaller than the opening of all of the upper frac sleeves, but larger than the sleeve it is intended to open. Thus, current or existing completion strings that utilizes frac sleeves in wellbores require frac-balls of proper size to be sequentially pumped into a completion string.
When a properly sized frac-ball is positioned within a corresponding frac sleeve, the positioning of the frac-ball exerts pressure causing the frac sleeve activation or opening, consequently causing the pressure to fracture or crack the geological formation. At the completion of each fracturing stage, a larger sized frac-ball is injected into the completion string, which opens up the next frac sleeve. This process repeats until all of the frac sleeves are opened, and multiple fractures are created in the wellbore.
Thus, conventional wellbores force fracturing to occur at the lowest frac sleeve first. This causes completion strings to be prone to accumulate undesired sand or mixtures in the wellbore after a fracking stage. Additionally, conventional wellbores rely on tapered frac sleeves corresponding to different sized frac-balls. This limits the number of stages in a completion string and frac rate due to the huge pressure drop across the frac sleeves with the smallest ball seats and limits the ability to efficiently treat the geological formation under consideration. After the multiple fractures are created in conventional wellbores, additional fractures cannot be created without intervention for mechanical activation.
Accordingly, needs exist for system and methods utilizing frac sleeves with a mechanism explained thereafter to allow a completion string to utilize a single frac ball, while allowing the fracking process to be performed from uppermost frac sleeve to a lowest frac sleeve. Additionally, needs exist for systems and methods utilizing frac sleeves with a mechanism configured to allow frac-sleeves to be used more than once.